"I am Lieutenant Sergeyev, commander of the cannon company!" The tall and thin man on the left saluted Sokov first.
As soon as he finished speaking, the slightly shorter lieutenant next to him also saluted Sokov and said clearly: "I am Lieutenant Ajik, commander of the anti-tank gun company."
After Sokov's eyes swept across the two people's faces again, he asked: "Are you all ready?"
"Yes, Comrade Major, we are ready for all battles." Sergeyev immediately replied loudly: "We can enter the battle at any time."
But Ajik said nothing, just nodded vigorously, indicating that he was ready.
"We can't go into battle yet, because the commanders and fighters in the battalion are on their way to Sushinich." Sokov smiled at the two of them and asked: "Which one of you has a map? We can take advantage of this opportunity.
I studied the terrain of the combat area."
"I have a map." Ajik agreed quickly, opened the map bag, took out a map from it, and spread it out on the table next to him.
Sokov took out a pencil from his satchel, marked the four villages that were about to be captured on the map, and said to the two of them: "Comrades, company commanders, the four villages that our superiors ordered us to capture are in the shape of a diamond on the map.
Distribution. Since the names of the villages are long and difficult to pronounce, in order to facilitate memory, I use numbers to distinguish them and serve as our attack sequence."
Ajik stared at the map for a while, then raised his head and looked at Sokov, and asked tentatively: "Comrade Major, I would like to ask how many troops the enemy has in these villages?"
When accepting the mission, although the division chief of staff did not specify how many enemies were in these villages, Sokov estimated that the number would not be too many. "According to the division chief of staff, the Germans occupied more than a dozen such villages.
, according to my estimation, each village has about one platoon of troops."
After listening to Sokov's answer, Ajik thought to himself: After such a long battle, there should be very few troops left in the major's battalion. Do they have the ability to capture these four villages? Thinking of this, he tentatively asked
Question: "Comrade Major, may I ask how many people are in your battalion?"
"More than nine hundred people." After Sokov finished answering this question, he took the initiative and said without waiting for Ajik to ask again: "The whole battalion is equipped with all German equipment, half of which are machine guns and submachine guns. But it is regrettable.
Unfortunately, there is not a single artillery piece in the camp. Fortunately, with your participation, I should have no problem seizing the villages occupied by the enemy."
"A battalion has more than 900 people?!" Hearing this number, Ajik and Sergeyev looked at each other, and both saw surprise in each other's eyes: "Nowadays, many infantry regiments only have 500 or 600 people. You
There are more than 900 people in one camp, which is incredible."
"Nothing surprising." Sokov folded the map on the table, handed it back to Ajik, and said lightly: "Our battalion has added many commanders and fighters rescued from prisoner of war camps, so we can reach such a large number of people."
After Sokov waited for Ajik to place the map, he asked with a smile: "How many artillery pieces do each of your two companies have, and how many shells are there in each gun?"
The first person to answer the question was Sergeyev: "Our company has six artillery pieces, and each gun is equipped with thirty rounds of shells."
Ajik continued: "My company has four anti-tank guns, and they don't have many shells. Each gun only has eighteen rounds."
Sokov's smile suddenly froze on his face. According to his original idea, he would attack each village. First, let the artillery company cover the German troops in the village with firepower, and then launch the attack after the enemy was beaten. But.
Nowadays, each cannon only has thirty rounds of shells, not to mention the firepower coverage. If you don't use it sparingly when attacking the first village, when you attack the next three villages, you will have to risk the enemy's artillery fire.
Charged forward one after another.
Thinking of this, Sokov said to the two company commanders: "Let's go with me to see the terrain."
When leaving the division headquarters, Sokov left behind a soldier from the guard squad and asked him to stay here to wait for Belkin, while he and the two company commanders took the remaining soldiers and followed the division.
guide, and rush to the area where the troops are about to attack.
Under the leadership of the guide, they walked through the knee-deep snow and walked through the forest to the vicinity of Village No. 1. On the way, Sokov felt strange in his heart. The 16th Army occupied Suxi.
Niqi's time is not short, so why didn't he capture this village so close to the city?
After they stopped at the edge of the forest, Sokov found an ideal observation position, raised his telescope and looked towards the village. He saw that the houses in the village were one in the east and one in the west, which seemed very scattered. For such a distribution, Sokov
Kov felt very satisfied in his heart. If the houses in the village were too concentrated, after the troops rushed into the village, they would be crowded together and become the target of the enemy.
Although looking from a distance, the entire village was covered with snow. Based on his own experience, Sokov soon discovered that there were trenches built by the German army and some civil fire points in the south of the village. There was a fire at the entrance of the village.
Two German soldiers wearing military coats were warming themselves around a fire. Not far behind them, there was a tank covered by snow parked.
Sokov put down the telescope and said to Ajik: "Lieutenant Ajik, have you seen the tank at the entrance of the village?" Before the other party could speak, he continued, "As soon as the battle starts, concentrate your artillery fire to destroy it.
Otherwise, it will cause huge casualties to our attacking troops. And you, Lieutenant Sergeyev, your company's mission is to use direct-aimed shooting to directly destroy the enemy's civil fire points at the entrance of the village."
Sergeyev visually measured the distance and said with some embarrassment: "Comrade Major, the distance from our position to the entrance of the village is more than a thousand meters. My company is full of recruits and lack combat experience. If we want to let
It’s a bit difficult for them to hit a target so far away.”
Just when he was looking at the terrain, Sokov was thinking in his mind that if the artillery platoon under his command could be equipped with a few artillery pieces, not to mention the firepower points outside the village, even the tanks parked at the entrance of the village could be cleared away.
Hearing Sergeyev's concern at this moment, he said carelessly: "Comrade Lieutenant, I have an experienced artillery force under my command. I can temporarily lend them to you."
"Aren't you commanding an infantry battalion?" Sergeyev asked with some surprise: "Why is there artillery in the battalion?"
"The battalion I command is a mixed battalion of various arms," Sokov said with some arrogance: "In addition to artillery, there are also tank troops, engineers and communications troops. If conditions permit, I would also like to form another flying squadron...
…”
When Ajik heard this, he couldn't stand it anymore and quickly interrupted Sokov: "Comrade Major, when will we launch an attack on the village?"